Paul Cook spoke of his sadness at going out of the League Cup at such an early stage claiming ‘we’re disappointed because we wanted to win it’. Rovers must now rely on the FAI Cup if they want to lift some silverware this season but the third round draw has not been kind. The Bit O’Red must, for the second year in a row, travel to Tolka Park and take on Shamrock Rovers. A good recent record against ‘Shams’ gives reason for optimisim and Cook is not too concerned at being the only side in the draw to be paired with a Premier Division team.

‘The cup is the cup. At the end of the day what we have had recently in cups is Galway at home and Waterford at home and we’ve been knocked out. And we went to Shamrock away and got through. The cup draw doesn’t bother me.’

Cook added: ‘If you are going to win the cup you have to beat teams. It is not a good cup draw. It is not the draw Shamrock would have wanted and I don’t think it is the draw we wanted but we got it so we will make the best of it’

Some players in the squad only have a couple of months left on their contracts with the future of Mauro Almeida the most pressing as he has been a key player for the side this season. Cook is worried by the club’s finances as they look to put a deal together for the Portuguese star.

‘We’re speaking to Almeida and that is an ongoing one. We are up to budget and when you are up to budget you have no money available and that is the disappointing thing. We are not the kind of club where we have got someone and we can say “we can sign him, him and him”. We’ve put a squad together for a certain amount of money and we have exceeded that so money is hard now and that is a concern’

By Rory Houston